NCHSAA Crowns 6 New Schools As Indoor Track & Field State Champions

Croatan Boys - 1A/2A

Throughout the day the Croatan boys really seemed to be head and shoulders above the rest of their competition at the NCSHAA 1A/2A State Championships.  The program in incredibly deep from the 200 to 800 which really helps them load up the 4x800, 4x400, 300 and 500 indoors.  They kicked off the day with a strong performance in the 4x800 taking 2nd to North Lincoln as they ran a SB of 8:15.  Shortly after junior Brendon Hodge was able to get an upset win in a tight 55m Hurdle final as he ran a PR of 7.71.  Hodge's performance really set to tone for the program.

The meet didn't go without any heartbreak for them.  Their 4x200 was running down the homestretch battling with Kinston, but took a fall going from a likely 2nd or 3rd place finish to finishing 18th.  So someone had to make up those points, and that was junior Jamie Rodriguez, Croatan's only true distance athlete who had to run the 1600/3200 where he was likely to be hopeful to score.  Rodriguez ran a 4:35 to take 3rd in the 1600, then doubled back to an 8th place finish in the 3200 later one.

Michael Quispe is Croatan's star as he lead a 500 with teammate's Noah Bibus and Joseph Bulfer looking to dominate the event.  The went 1-3-5 as Quispe took the win to score 20 team points and really extend their lead over the field.  Then Devin Barnes set a 2 second PR to take a surprise 2nd place finish in the 1000 running 2:39.04.  
Croatan was able to cap off the meet with a 3:33 4x400 that took 1st place by a decent margin as they took the team title by 21 points beating Kinston 63-42 as Atkins and Franklin rounded out the top 4.